Re: Hybrid IEM

Hello!There is an increasing number of 'hybrid' IEM, which utilize a dynamic driver for bass and Balanced Armatures (BA) for mids and highs.Such 'hybrid' IEM are praised by audiophile websites.

As for me, I gave a try to Oriveti New Primacy 'hybrid' IEM and I was quite impressed with the bass.I tried to match the bass with BA IEM and EQ, with no success.But we all know that impression can be very misleading, so here come the questions:

Apart from pure placebo effect, is there any chance that a dynamic driver would offer different bass presentation? (I was wondering if temporal aspects (ex. : decay) could explain such difference...)

Is there any real world advantage to combine a dynamic driver to BA? (Leading to more complex design, with crossover and so on...)

Many thanks for your feedback!Fred

Combine DD and BA in a IEM offer you the advantage to profit of all the major flaws of these two technologies.

If you are searching for an atomic unbloated bass rendering you should look at the DD<Ø13mm or the largest BA from sonion which have a decompression hole.Many of CIEM builders use them and fill the hole with resin instead of making a cavity (the BA is designed for it) in order to say that they have used the best BA for lows... but totally destroy the performance of the transducer with the hole obstruction.... but if you use this hole, you lower the isolation of the BA CIEM at the level of the DD ones.

Re: Hybrid IEM

I do appreciate a slight bass emphasis when listening to music with headphones or IEMs (not with speakers), but I am not looking for an 'atomic unbloated bass'. I am far from a 'basshead'.

What surprised me with the 'hybrid' IEMs I tested (Orivety New Primacy) is that the bass seemed to sound noticeably 'different'. Not louder, just 'different'.Yesterday I tried do play with Neutralizer EQ (advised on another topic, thanks!) and bass still seemed to sound noticeably different (not louder) than with the BA IEM at my disposal.

There is nothing scientific in the method, for sure, and I do know that a lot of parameters comes into play. Plus impressions can be extremely misleading.Nevertheless, I was wondering if frequency response apart a dynamic driver bass could (or not) sound audibly different, for example due to temporal aspects (ex. decay).

As for isolation, I can only agree.The ONP do have a vent hole and sound isolation seems lesser than the other IEM with similar tips.That maybe due to other factors by the way...or just a false impression. I have nothing to measure it...